Yad VaJerusalemhem Volume 91, February 2020 “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism” The Fifth World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem (pp. 2-7) Yad VaJerusalemhem Volume 91, Adar 5781, February 2020 “Remembering the Holocaust, Published by: Fighting Antisemitism” ■ Contents Chairman of the Council: Rabbi Israel Meir Lau International Holocaust Remembrance Day ■ 2-12 Chancellor of the Council: Dr. Moshe Kantor “Remembering the Holocaust, Vice Chairman of the Council: Dr. Yitzhak Arad Fighting Antisemitism” ■ 2-7 Chairman of the Directorate: Avner Shalev The Fifth World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem Director General: Dorit Novak Tackling Antisemitism Through Holocaust Head of the International Institute for Holocaust ■ 8-9 Research and Incumbent, John Najmann Chair Education for Holocaust Studies: Prof. Dan Michman Survivors: Chief Historian: Prof. Dina Porat Faces of Life After the Holocaust ■ 10-11 Academic Advisor: Joining with Facebook to Remember Prof. Yehuda Bauer Holocaust Victims ■ 12 Members of the Yad Vashem Directorate: ■ 13 Shmuel Aboav, Yossi Ahimeir, Daniel Atar, Treasures from the Collections Dr. David Breakstone, Abraham Duvdevani, Love Letter from Auschwitz ■ 14-15 Erez Eshel, Prof. Boleslaw (Bolek) Goldman, Moshe Ha-Elion, Adv. Shlomit Kasirer, Education ■ 16-17 Yehiel Leket, Adv. Tamar Peled Amir, Graduate Spotlight ■ 16-17 Avner Shalev, Baruch Shub, Dalit Stauber, Dr. Zehava Tanne, Dr. Laurence Weinbaum, Tamara Vershitskaya, Belarus Adv. Shoshana Weinshall, Dudi Zilbershlag New Online Course: Chosen Issues in Holocaust History ■ 17 THE MAGAZINE Online Exhibition: Editor-in-Chief: Iris Rosenberg Children in the Holocaust ■ 18-19 Managing Editor: Leah Goldstein Editorial Board: Research ■ 20-23 Simmy Allen The Holocaust in the Soviet Union Tal Ben-Ezra ■ 20-21 Deborah Berman in Real Time Marisa Fine International Book Prize Winners 2019 ■ 21 Dana Porath Lilach Tamir-Itach Yad Vashem Studies: The Cutting Edge of Dana Weiler-Polak Holocaust Research ■ 22-23 ■ Susan Weisberg At the invitation of the President of the Fellows Corner: Dr. Chiara Renzo ■ 24 Editorial Coordinator: Miri Rabinovich Nissim State of Israel, some 50 members of royalty, News ■ 25 Language Editor: Leah Goldstein presidents, prime ministers and parliamentary leaders from Europe, North America and Proofreader: Ezra Olman Friends Worldwide ■ 26-31 Australia attended the Fifth World Holocaust Translated by: James Joseph Mclntosh Forum, entitled “Remembering the Holocaust, Assisted by: Alexander Avram, Shaya Ben Yehuda, Layla Blenden, Fighting Antisemitism," on 23 January 2020. Ayala Peretz, Amanda Smulowitz, Organized by the World Holocaust Forum Martin Sykes-Haas Foundation in cooperation with Yad Vashem, Photography: Yossi Ben-David, Maya Fogel, the Forum took place in a specially erected Isaac Harari, Oded Karni, Lior Mizrahi, Karina Pasternak, Martin Sykes-Haas, Haim Tzach (GPO) marquis in Yad Vashem’s Warsaw Ghetto Square (the site of the annual Opening State Production: Ahva Printing Press Company Ltd. Ceremony for Holocaust Remembrance Day). Design: Stephanie & Ruti Design The Forum was held in advance of the 75th This magazine was published with the assistance of The Azrieli Group. anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz- Birkenau, and the UN-sanctioned International ISSN 0793-7199 Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January. ©Articles appearing in this issue may be reprinted Here are some images and highlights from with proper acknowledgement. this unprecedented event at Yad Vashem: Yad Vashem’s activities are supported by Israel's Ministry of Education ■ On the cover: The Fifth World Holocaust Forum and The Conference on Jewish Material at Yad Vashem, 23 January 2020 Claims Against Germany. 2 “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism” The Fifth World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem ■ Interspersed throughout the proceedings were musical interludes performed by an international orchestra, conducted by world-renowned conductor Vladimir Spivakov and accompanied by an international choir. ■ The ceremony concluded with a moment of silence as the delegates stood together in front of Nathan Rapaport's "Warsaw Ghetto Uprising" monument. International Holocaust Remembrance Day 3 ■ The ten speakers at the event represented the State of Israel, the Fifth World Holocaust Forum hosts, and the four Allied countries who liberated Europe from Nazi tyranny. Due to his country’s special obligation in Holocaust remembrance and the fight against contemporary antisemitism, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also addressed the audience. “I stand here laden with the heavy, historical burden of guilt,” he acknowledged. “I wish I could say that our remembrance has made us immune to evil.” “Today we remember what happens when the powerless cry for help and the powerful refuse to answer,” said US Vice President Michael R. Pence. President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin remarked that the Forum participants had come together "to honor the victims of the Holocaust by a shared responsibility – our duty to the past and the future." “We must never cease to be appalled, nor moved by the testimony of those who lived through [the Shoah],” stated HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales. “Their experience must always educate, guide and warn us.” French President Emmanuel Macron declared: “In our history, antisemitism always preceded the weakening of democracy.” Israel’s President Reuven “Ruvi” Rivlin spoke about “The Age of Responsibility” being an ongoing challenge. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that “confronting antisemitism in all its forms protects all societies.” World Holocaust Forum Foundation President Dr. Moshe Kantor hoped for a united effort to “plant the seeds of trust and belief,” while Holocaust survivor and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau called the event “a bridge to the survival of mankind.” 4 Yad Vashem Chairman's Address ■ “I am writing morality. Values do not necessarily progress the International School for Holocaust Studies. this letter before my along with technology. Here, professionals from around the world learn death, although I Seventy-five years after liberation, Holocaust accurate facts about the Holocaust, and how to don’t know the exact remembrance is more relevant than ever. It serves communicate its meanings to their communities, day my relatives as a lighthouse, warning us of the danger of peers and students. and I will be killed extreme racist ideologies. Our comprehensive research, numerous just because we Yad Vashem – the World Holocaust exhibitions and robust online presence are are Jews... How I Remembrance Center, is the gatekeeper of additional means to disseminate our knowledge yearn to live and Holocaust memory. It is here in Jerusalem that to a global audience. reach some good in the voices and legacy of the Shoah victims and We are all here today because we share a ■ Yad Vashem Chairman life. But everything survivors are gathered, preserved and made deep concern about what is happening around Avner Shalev is lost… Farewell.” accessible for all humanity. the globe. Your presence gives us hope: Hope of These were the last words of Fanya Barbakow overcoming Holocaust denial and distortion. before she was murdered in the Druja ghetto “Memory must be Hope of securing individual rights and human in 1942. translated into action” dignity in all societies. And hope that the world The Holocaust was the most deadly we entrust to our children will be kinder and manifestation of antisemitism. It was the Now, memory must be translated into action. more tolerant than the one we inherited from outcome of an extreme racist ideology, adopted Antisemitism, and all other forms of racism, our parents. by a modern state, to blame one group for all will never be diminished through silence! Despite the horrors they witnessed and collective ills. Tackling antisemitism today requires a range endured, Holocaust survivors such as Rabbi Nazi antisemitism was used to legitimize of policies and tools – locally, nationally and Lau did not lose faith in humanity. They unprecedented cruelty: the systematic murder internationally. International forums, such as chose life and contributed to every society of millions of innocent people. Even today, the ours here today, fortify a united front against they joined. Holocaust seems almost impossible to grasp. But any expressions of racism, anywhere. In 2002, survivor representatives signed a we must do just that, because while the Nazi Our mutual duty is to educate the upcoming declaration here at Yad Vashem. “To the next plan was aimed against the Jews, antisemitic generation, to ensure that everyone understands generations,” they wrote, “we pass on the Jewish atrocities never end with the Jews. what constitutes antisemitism, and remembers message that memory leads to moral obligation. The Holocaust was a calamity for the Jewish where it had led us in the past. As an educator, Memory must be the basis of action and the people and a catastrophe for all people. The I realized early on that Yad Vashem must create source of strength for building a better world.” Shoah proved that modernity does not ensure ■ The nations' leaders commemorated the victims of the Holocaust by laying wreaths in memory of the six million Holocaust victims. International Holocaust Remembrance Day 5 ■ Holocaust survivor Naftali Deutsch recited ■ Holocaust survivors Rose Moskowitz from the United States and Colette Avital, Chairperson “Kaddish,” the mourner’s prayer. of